Well, if the rule is take the hardest passages as a discipline, we have some problems. The lectionary text is below for Job this morningL they have the verse from the beginning of the dialogue and then extracts from the chapter.
Now, that removes some verses… and it matched with an equally difficult part of the Gospel of John
1Then Job answered:
1“I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. 2I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me. 3Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked? 4Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see as humans see? 5Are your days like the days of mortals, or your years like human years, 6that you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin, 7although you know that I am not guilty, and there is no one to deliver out of your hand? 8Your hands fashioned and made me; and now you turn and destroy me. 9Remember that you fashioned me like clay; and will you turn me to dust again?
16“Bold as a lion you hunt me; you repeat your exploits against me. 17You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your vexation toward me; you bring fresh troops against me.
18“Why did you bring me forth from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me, 19and were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave. 20Are not the days of my life few? Let me alone, that I may find a little comfort 21before I go, never to return, to the land of gloom and deep darkness, 22the land of gloom and chaos, where light is like darkness.”
12Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” 13Then the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.” 14Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15You judge by human standards; I judge no one. 16Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid; for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. 17In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. 18I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.” 19Then they said to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.
Now, before I go further, you can get the entire chapter of Job, which adds context.
10 “I loathe my very life;
therefore I will give free rein to my complaint
and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I say to God: Do not declare me guilty,
but tell me what charges you have against me.
3 Does it please you to oppress me,
to spurn the work of your hands,
while you smile on the plans of the wicked?
4 Do you have eyes of flesh?
Do you see as a mortal sees?
5 Are your days like those of a mortal
or your years like those of a strong man,
6 that you must search out my faults
and probe after my sin—
7 though you know that I am not guilty
and that no one can rescue me from your hand?8 “Your hands shaped me and made me.
Will you now turn and destroy me?
9 Remember that you molded me like clay.
Will you now turn me to dust again?
10 Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese,
11 clothe me with skin and flesh
and knit me together with bones and sinews?
12 You gave me life and showed me kindness,
and in your providence watched over my spirit.13 “But this is what you concealed in your heart,
and I know that this was in your mind:
14 If I sinned, you would be watching me
and would not let my offense go unpunished.
15 If I am guilty—woe to me!
Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head,
for I am full of shame
and drowned in[a] my affliction.
16 If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion
and again display your awesome power against me.
17 You bring new witnesses against me
and increase your anger toward me;
your forces come against me wave upon wave.
18 “Why then did you bring me out of the womb?
I wish I had died before any eye saw me.
19 If only I had never come into being,
or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!
20 Are not my few days almost over?
Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy
21 before I go to the place of no return,
to the land of gloom and utter darkness,
22 to the land of deepest night,
of utter darkness and disorder,
where even the light is like darkness.”
Now, Jesus has a partial answer to Job. No, as humans we cannot judge rightly. God’s eye is clearer. He is more wise. He does not look with human eyes. He is not mortal.
But in Christ, he did both see with human eyes, and he faced mortality.
Job is complaining — not that God is unjust, but because he has lost God’s mercy, and he cannot fathom why. If he knew he was a sinner he would have been comforted. In fact, the advice of his comforters was exactly that: repent and be reconciled.
But what had happened was not because of some divine accounting or karma. We cannot judge rightly. But God is sovereign, and in this fallen world good and bad things happen to us regardless of if we deserve them, or not.
In fact it often seems that the unrighteous and unjust are happier and more prosperous. I have said before that prosperity gospel is an error: this is where it falls over completely. You cannot sit with someone in great pain and then get an accounting from them. You have no explanation. You are left with but the prayer that God will make this work for good in them,
Because if I have read the OT correctly, the times of prosperity are the times of greatest spiritual danger.